


Here I Dreamt

by Hexiva



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Character Study, Dark Charles, F/M, M/M, Mind Control, Telepathy, Utopia (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 17:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12041055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hexiva/pseuds/Hexiva
Summary: Charles Xavier's dream becomes a nightmare as he realizes that everyone around him is under his telepathic spell.





	Here I Dreamt

Everything is as it used to be. He is sitting in the Xavier Institute, the way it used to be, back when it first began. He can see the shape of corridors and walls that will be destroyed and rebuilt many times in the future - but, for now, are unchanged. 

But there are more people here than before. He wheels through the halls, greeting face after face.

“Hi, Professor!” Kitty says, as she walks past. 

“Hello, Kitty! How is your homework going?” he responds.

“Hiya, Prof,” Quentin Quire says, darting past.

“Good morning, Quentin! I hope you’re not getting into more trouble.”

“Good morning, Professor!” Scott says, nodding to him as he passes.

“Good morning to you, Scott! I hope you’re ready for your lessons.”

As he passes by each person, he can see in their eyes the affection they feel for him. He can see how happy they are - to be here, to be with each other and with him. Everyone is happy, everything is fine.

And with every familiar face that passes by him, he feels the cold dread in his stomach grow. 

Moira stops him with a hand on his shoulder and a quick peck on his cheek. “How’s it goin’, Charles?” she asks. She smiles warmly at him, the way she used to when they were young and in love and the world was full of possibilities. 

Charles shrinks away from her kiss, feeling filthy and unworthy of her touch. “Moira - ” he says.

“Are ye alright, Charles?” Moira asks, concerned. “Y’look a bit pale. Ye always work yerself much too hard, y’know.”

“You work just as hard as I do, Moira,” he returns, but his heart isn’t in it. There’s a terrible knowledge growing in the back of his mind.

“I’m a doctor, I have an excuse,” Moira says cheerfully. “You, on th’other hand, need to take care of yerself.” She pressed another kiss to his cheek and moved on.

Charles keeps moving through the hallway. He doesn’t want to, and yet he feels compelled to see more, to seek out the source of the  _ wrongness  _ nagging at the edge of his mind.

He nearly runs into Magnus, walking out of an empty classroom. Magnus steadies his wheelchair with one hand. “Charles! You startled me, I thought you were still in class?”

“I let them out early to enjoy the good weather,” Charles says. 

“I’m surprised. You’re usually the strict one,” Magnus comments, smiling.

“What about you? Are you preparing for your next class?” Charles says. Even as the words slip out of his mouth, he knows they are wrong.

But Magnus doesn’t notice a thing. “Yes, I have a fifteen minute break scheduled before I have to be ready for the Special Class. I need a cup of coffee before I can face Beak. He is a good child at heart, but he is somewhat more garrulous than I am used to.”

“No,” Charles says, suddenly. “No, you never taught the Special Class. That was Xorn, impersonating you.”

Magnus isn’t phased. “Well, not before, of course. But then you changed my mind.”

“Ch-changed your mind?” Charles stammers, his heart freezing.

“Yes, of course. You changed all of our minds,” Magnus says.

“No,” Charles protests. “No, I wouldn’t do that to you. I wouldn’t do that. I’m better than that!” His heart is pounding and his voice is too loud, but none of the students around him notice. He wouldn’t want them to see his weakness, and so they don’t.

“But you did,” Magnus says, calmly. “It started with Gabrielle, of course. You just wanted to help her . . . but you wanted her to love you, too. And then when your students came along, it was so easy to protect them by making others forget them. From there, it wasn’t so big a jump to making  _ them  _ forget things, was it?  Scott was first. You were always fiddling with his mind. And then Moira, of course. The two people closest to you. You couldn’t let them know that you let an entire team of X-Men die on Krakoa, could you? So you took that memory away from them.”

“No, I - I didn’t,” Charles stammers, but he knows, he knows he did. “But I - I stopped,” he swears. “I stopped there, I didn’t - ”

“Well, for awhile,” Magnus agrees. “But then there were the New Mutants, and you had to keep them in line somehow, did you not? Illyana was so upset, and you were so afraid that the New Mutants would be stranded without her teleportation power, that you took control of her.”

“I didn’t!” Charles says, frantic now. “I didn’t do it, I told  _ Karma  _ to do it - ”

“It’s all the same in the end,” Magnus says philosophically. He doesn’t sound angry. “That was how it started. All your life has been about controlling people, really. All you had to do was give in to the easy way. You know as well as I do that the ends justify the means, Charles. And the ends - well, look around you.” He gestured to the school around them, to the happy, smiling students and teachers. “Wasn’t it worth it?”

“No!” Charles says, clutching the wheels of his chair, his knuckles white. “No, no, I wouldn’t have - I would never - I wouldn’t do this! Not like this, Magnus, I swear to you!”

“But you did,” Magnus says. He kneels down next to Charles and puts a hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right, Charles,” he promises. “Everything’s fine. I love you.”

As Magnus speaks, Charles knows that the words aren’t his own, but are what Charles wants him to say. “No!” Charles cries out. “I didn’t want it like this, Magnus, I want you - the way you are - I don’t want - this - ”

“It’s all right, Charles,” Magnus repeats, leaning over and wrapping his arms around Charles. “This is all what you wanted. This is your dream. We’re all happy now.”

Charles starts crying, big, humiliating sobs, the kind he would never allow himself in Magnus’s presence if Magnus had the freedom to reject him. But he doesn’t. Magnus is helpless in Charles’ grasp, and only like this can Charles let himself go in his arms - 

Charles jerks upright in bed, tears on his face. He’s sitting in his bedroom in Utopia, soaked with sweat, his heart pounding rapidly. 

“A dream,” he mutters to himself, his hands clenched tightly in the sheets. “It was just a dream. It wasn’t real. I wouldn’t - I wouldn’t - ”

He can’t quite convince himself of it. His hands shaking, he reaches out compulsively for the cell phone on his bedside table. It takes him a couple of tries to get the number right, his hands still unsteady, and he waits with his heart in his throat as the phone rings.

Magnus answers the phone with an abrupt, “What is it? What’s happened?” His voice is rough with sleep and tinged with panic. Of course, Charles thinks. Why else would someone call in the middle of the night, except if some horrible disaster had occurred? Surely no one would be so foolhardy as to call Magneto over something as trifling as a bad dream.

“Nothing,” he answers, trying to make his voice sound calm and untouched. “I’m fine. I just wanted to - hear your voice.”

“What?!” Magnus snaps. “It’s one in the morning! What do you think you’re playing at, Xavier?”

Charles relaxes at the irritation in Magnus’s tone, so unlike the cheerful affection of the dream. “I’m sorry, Magnus,” he says softly. “I really wasn’t thinking straight. Thank you for answering.”

There’s a pause as Magneto sorts out his thoughts. “Charles, are you alright?” he asks. “You sound . . . odd.”

“I am now,” Charles says. “It’s all right. Everything’s fine. I’ll let you get to sleep now.”

“A tempting prospect, I admit,” Magnus says. “You’re certain I cannot help?”

“You know I would ask you if I needed help,” Charles answers. It’s a lie, of course, but the haze of the dream is fading, and Magnus’s voice - real and solid and  _ free  _ in a way the soulless echo in his dream could never be - steadies him. “Go back to sleep.”

“Very well,” Magnus says. “Good night, Charles.”

After he hangs up, Charles lies back down and stares up at the ceiling. But he doesn’t go back to sleep.


End file.
